Marks Campus Ministry Blog

Hi everyone! Welcome to my campus ministry update for April! Although this time is obviously pretty crazy, I'm so excited to share with you what God is doing in our ministry and some of the things he is teaching me. My roommates and I had an Easter dinner together on Saturday First off, I'll just share that I am doing well. I'm holed up in Dallas but I have 5 awesome roommates who I've been spending a lot of time with. They help keep me sane! I've been so encouraged by the creative ways we've found to serve and love each other and our community. These guys ask me how I'm doing, help keep me accountable, show me so much love and affection, and are a constant source of joy to me. We all went and gave blood together and sent notes offering help to our neighbors if they needed anything, so seeing them step up in these ways is really inspiring to me. Thursday Night Focus looks a little more digital Ministry continues online and via phone call. N

Hi everyone! Welcome to my campus ministry update for the month of March. I want to share with y'all some of the things God has been teaching me and our ministry lately, and I hope it is a great encouragement to you in this challenging time. My pastoral supervisor Cody and I Over the past month, God has been bringing up a common theme in my life and ministry. That theme has been that all people undergo suffering. I have some core guys who are going through dark places of anxiety and depression, some who feel like God is distant because things aren't working out the way they hoped, and I have found God pointing me and others back to the cross over and over again. In so many of these circumstances, God reminds me of the people who have gone before us have lived by faith in the midst of severe trials. I think that God likes to hammer in the lessons he is teaching us, and these are some of the ways I've noticed him doing that: We decided to start a core series on th

Hi everyone! Welcome to my campus ministry update for the month of February. This has been an amazing month and I'm so excited to share with you what God is doing! Over 500 students from all over the metroplex came to our Winter Camp! In Mark 4:26, Jesus gives a parable: He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.” This month, a lot of seeds have sprouted, and I have no idea how. Winter camp was hugely meaningful to the guys in my core (small group) and we as a ministry have really been seeking to grow in living in the light. All of this is amazing to celebrate, because harvest time, when it is easy to see the Spirit moving is awesom

Hi everyone! Welcome to my campus ministry update for the month of January. This month has been slower than normal, so I don't have quite as many pictures (sorry!), but its been a month of reflecting and preparing for the new year and a new semester. Some sweet students in our ministry organized a New Year's Eve party! We started out the new year with Focus staff retreat, where all the Focus staff from all the campuses (about 50 of us in total) drove out to central Texas to spend time with one another and realign our hearts for the upcoming year. Focus has a sister ministry in Washington called CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) and Brady and Shirley Bobbink, who have been ministers there for more than 40 years came down to encourage us and answer questions about ministry. There was lots of time for us to hike and play games as well, so I got to know several of the other staff a lot better.  Watching the sunset at staff retreat Hiking at Ink's Lake state

Hi everyone! Welcome to my ministry update for the month of December! This month has been a really great end to the semester and God has been faithful in some really cool ways. This month, all of the Focus Apprentices gave sermons with the topic "This is My Gospel." This was a challenging assignment for me, as it is really difficult to condense all that Jesus means to me into 20 minutes. I rewrote my sermon about 5 times, but I finally wanted to settle down and focus on what it means that Jesus died for us, and that the cross changes the way we live our lives. Because of the cross, we know that God isn't distant. We know that he is willing to go through suffering, to live among his people. They say the best leaders are those who don't call you do anything they won't do, and Jesus shows us that he is a God worth following because he has already paid the highest price for us. If you want to read my full sermon, here's a link: https://docs.google.com/do

Hi everyone! Welcome to my ministry update for the month of October! I want to start off by sharing some of the things God has been teaching me through my ministry. Earlier this month, I was talking with Cody McCarty, my pastoral supervisor, and he offered some comments on how I've been doing as an apprentice so far. Overall, he was super encouraging and thinks I'm doing a good job, but two areas that we've both noticed I need to grow in are boldness in confronting others and being vulnerable with others. I was praying about this, and God was showing me that both of these are the symptoms of a bigger issue, namely wanting to please both God and people.  I tend to be someone who likes to please others, but obviously pleasing God sometimes means displeasing people. Earlier this month I had to call out a student who asked another student to participate in a fight with him, and I was so upset because I didn't want to rock the boat on our relationship. Pleasing God meant c